Honolulu Council member Radiant Cordero is concerned the city’s stated goal to plant 100,000 trees by 2025 has fallen short of its mark.

Cordero, chair of the Council’s Budget Committee, also wants to know how much of the appropriated $700,000 in fiscal year 2024 has been spent toward planting trees at local, city-owned parks and along city streets.

As part of a resolution introduced Monday, Cordero wants to know whether those trees will be planted by the end of the fiscal year, June 30 — at which time the $700,000 in tree planting funds will lapse.

The city Department of Parks and Recreation says city tree plantings continue on Oahu, though the work itself takes time.

“We are delighted with the release of these funds for this tree-planting effort, and appreciate Council member Cordero’s patience,” DPR spokesperson Nate Serota told the Honolulu Star-­Advertiser via email.

But he noted that planting new trees around the island can be difficult for a few reasons.

“One, the treelings require watering and additional care for about a year to get them well-established in their new home and ensure their success,” Serota said. “Two, the young trees are often targets of vandals, and at such a young age damaged trees have an even more difficult time recovering if at all.”

According to Resolution 19, the Council appropriated $700,000 for DPR’s Division of Urban Forestry, or DUF, “for the planting of trees on city property islandwide to increase the urban tree canopy and for community engagement with area residents.”

“This appropriation is consistent with the city’s goal of increasing the city’s urban tree canopy to at least 35% by 2035, a challenge established by the Council through the adoption of Resolution 18-55 and accepted by the city administration,” Cordero’s resolution states.

It further notes that in 2017 the city signed on to the Chicago Climate Charter, whereby it committed to the planting of 100,000 trees across Oahu by 2025.

“According to the Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency, the number of tree plantings by the city pales in comparison to the number of trees planted by the community, at 7,702 and 45,813, respectively,” Cordero’s resolution states. “Although significant progress has been made, the city is barely halfway to its goal of planting 100,000 trees by 2025.”

Meantime, the deadline to use the tree planting money looms.

“If the $700,000 appropriation for the planting of trees on city property is not encumbered or expended by June 30, 2024, the funding will lapse,” the resolution states. “The Council concurs with Resilience Strategy Action 33’s finding that the city ‘must invest in and steward our community forests’ and believes that it is in the city’s best interest to expeditiously utilize the $700,000 appropriation.”

Ultimately, the resolution is intended to prompt Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s administration take quick action on the funding.

“The Council urges the mayor to immediately release any unallotted portion of the $700,000 appropriation for use by the Urban Forestry Division of the Department of Parks and Recreation,” Cordero’s resolution states, and “that the Department of Parks and Recreation is requested to provide an update on its plans for expending this appropriation, including the number, type, and proposed location of the trees it plans to plant.”

In response, DPR said tree plantings have occurred in greater numbers across the island than is currently reflected in city data.

“We reported in March 2022 that we had met the halfway goal for planting 100,000 trees by 2025,” Serota told the Star-Advertiser. “Our current online dashboard shows 53,585 community and city tree plantings, but that number is outdated. There have been thousands of trees planted since that last update, it is just a matter of inputting the GIS information into the map to reflect the accurate, up-to-date count.”

He added that DUF has planted 345 trees since July, and noted the plan calls for about 240 more trees to be planted in Kalihi, Salt Lake, Ewa, the Leeward Coast and Kaimuki. “We are focusing on equity, and areas where canopy cover is greatly needed, to determine where to plant the trees,” he said.

Moreover, Serota said the city intends to use all of the $700,000 slated for tree plantings. “We hope to spend the money before July,” he added. “The money will pay for contracted planting, a year of tree maintenance, and in-house plantings from our DUF crews.”

Via email, Cordero told the Star-Advertiser that the goal of her resolution “is to support the city administration in working collaboratively with the Honolulu City Council to appropriately utilize the funding to the Urban Forest Division of (DPR) for the planting of trees on city property islandwide.”

“Our goal is to increase the urban tree canopy and community engagement with area residents,” she said, “and the Council seeks to partner with and support the DPR in whatever ways we can to achieve this.”

She added that the city’s tree planting program is “an important initiative that will have major long-term impacts on our environment.”

“We know that trees perform several functions that are crucial to our ability to adapt to climate change by absorbing greenhouse gasses, reducing surface level temperatures to cool our communities, and capturing stormwater to reduce flooding,” Cordero said.

According to the city’s website, DPR has jurisdiction over all trees growing in the city right-of-way, including along city streets and city parks. Within the city parks department, DUF is responsible for the maintenance of nearly 250,000 street and park trees on the island.

Initially, newly planted city trees are watered and maintained by DUF’s Nursery and Landscape Section. After the maintenance period, responsibility for the care and maintenance of street and park trees is transferred to DUF’s arboriculture section, the city says.

DUF generally does not plant native or endemic tree species on city streets due the difficulty of growing such trees in urban areas. However, DUF does plant native tree species in city-owned parks “when allowable,” the city’s website states.

Meanwhile, Cordero said Resolution 19 is pending referral to a Council committee for further public discussion.